Sex differences in autonomic function following maximal exercise

Abstract

BackgroundHeart rate variability (HRV), blood pressure variability, (BPV) and heart rate recovery (HRR) are measures that provide insight regarding autonomic function. Maximal exercise can affect autonomic function, and it is unknown if there are sex differences in autonomic recovery following exercise. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine sex differences in several measures of autonomic function and the response following maximal exercise.MethodsSeventy-one (31 males and 40 females) healthy, nonsmoking, sedentary normotensive subjects between the ages of 18 and 35 underwent measurements of HRV and BPV at rest and following a maximal exercise bout. HRR was measured at minute one and two following maximal exercise.ResultsMales have significantly greater HRR following maximal exercise at both minute one and two; however, the significance between sexes was eliminated when controlling for VO2 peak. Males had significantly higher resting BPV-low-frequency (LF) values compared to females and did not significantly change following exercise, whereas females had significantly increased BPV-LF values following acute maximal exercise. Although males and females exhibited a significant decrease in both HRV-LF and HRV-high frequency (HF) with exercise, females had significantly higher HRV-HF values following exercise. Males had a significantly higher HRV-LF/HF ratio at rest; however, both males and females significantly increased their HRV-LF/HF ratio following exercise.ConclusionsPre-menopausal females exhibit a cardioprotective autonomic profile compared to age-matched males due to lower resting sympathetic activity and faster vagal reactivation following maximal exercise. Acute maximal exercise is a sufficient autonomic stressor to demonstrate sex differences in the critical post-exercise recovery period.

Differences in autonomic heart rate modulation during rest and after a supramaximal anaerobic test in relation to gender and the menstrual cycle in women

“…It is possible that similarly stressful life milieu of our participants influenced diminished differences in genders. Maximally achieved heart frequencies did not stand in contrast between men and women in our study, which is consistent to previous results (15,17,23).…”

“…Markedly higher lnLF and lnHF values were obtained in males after the Wingate test in compare to women in all menstrual cycle phases. These findings contrast the ones found by authors who reported higher values of HF in women during recovery from the test for maximal oxygen consumption and concluded that women have faster vagal postexercise reactivation (15). In general, HRR is faster after a Wingate test and recovery after an incremental VO2max test sometimes takes several days (42,43), but supra-maximal exercise has a greater impact on autonomic modulation in women.…”

“…Women have a faster vagal post exercise recovery after a maximal aerobic capacity test (15), but supra-maximal anaerobic test has a greater impact on autonomic reactivation in women (16,17). Women are in general underrepresented in exercise studies and majority of those that include them do not hold MC phases into account.…”

How the First Years of Motherhood Impact the Cardiac Autonomic Profile of Female Healthcare Professionals

“…For instance, decreased overall HRV, increased sympathetic and/or decreased vagal activity directed to the heart after a myocardial infarction, in hypertension and heart failure are related to increased mortality and morbidity [13][14][15][16] . On the other hand, therapeutic interventions that improve the sympathovagal balance may positively affect prognosis 17, 18 . In addition, HRV studies [19][20][21][22][23] have demonstrated that also pregnancy and menopause in uence the CAP [19][20][21][22][23] . During pregnancy, a high sympathetic modulation directed to heart and vessels has been found in women at the late stage of pregnancy compared to the early stage 24 .…”

Reprodutibilidade da hipotensão pós-exercício e de seus mecanismos hemodinâmicos e autonômicos

“…A modulação simpática vasomotora, representada pela BFPAS (EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CARDIOLOGY; NORTH AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PACING AND ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY, 1996) aumentou ao longo da sessão de exercício e se manteve na sessão controle, demonstrando um efeito do exercício de aumentar essa modulação. Poucos estudos (GOULOPOULOU;FERNHALL;KANALEY, 2009;KAPPUS et al, 2015;NIEMELÄ et al, 2008) investigaram a modulação simpática vasomotora após o exercício aeróbico através da análise espectral e os resultados obtidos foram controversos, com a maioria não verificando nenhum efeito significante (KAPPUS et al, 2015;NIEMELÄ et al, 2008 HEFFERNAN et al, 2007;LACOMBE et al, 2011;LIU et al, 2012). Erro Sist = erro sistemático; Conf = confiabilidade; Conc = concordância; CV = coeficiente de variação; PAS = pressão arterial sistólica; PAD = pressão arterial diastólica; PAM = pressão arterial média; DC = débito cardíaco; RVP = resistência vascular periférica; FC = frequência cardíaca; VS = volume sistólico; ln = logaritmo natural; un = unidades normalizadas; VTR-R = variância total do intervalo R-R; BFR-R = banda de baixa frequência da variabilidade do intervalo R-R; AFR-R = banda de alta frequência da variabilidade do intervalo R-R; BF/AF = razão entre as bandas de baixa e de alta frequência da variabilidade do intervalo R-R; VTPAS = variância total da pressão arterial sistólica (PAS); BFPAS = banda de baixa frequência da variabilidade da PAS; SBR = sensibilidade barorreflexa.…”